Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

For Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first the first woman and the first African to serve as Director-General of the World Trade Organization, the pandemic taught us “whether you are a rich country or a poor country, there are some things you just can’t do on your own. The issue of the interconnectedness of the world is so evident now. It was always there, but I think the pandemic has highlighted that that we have problems of the global commons which no one country and no one person can solve alone.”

An economist and international development expert with more than 30 years of experience, Okonjo-Iweala knows what she is talking about. She was the first woman to serve as Nigeria’s finance minister, a post she held for seven years. As finance minister, she implemented policy and institutional reforms to help fight corruption. She also spearheaded the write-off by the Paris Club of $30 billion of the country’s debt.

Prior to her time in Nigeria, she had a 25-year career at the World Bank, ultimately serving as the managing director of operations from 2007 to 2011, before returning in 2021 as director-general. She is a firm believer in the power of trade to lift developing countries out of poverty and assist them to achieve robust economic growth and sustainable development. In her own words, “there are people who have been left behind by globalization — sometimes people blame trade. But actually I think trade can be an instrument to foster inclusion. So what drives me is … how do we use the rules that we have … this very powerful instrument of the multilateral trading system, how do we use it to benefit people, to drive towards equality?”

Okonjo-Iweala has twice been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Forbes named her as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World five times and in 2020, named her African of the Year. She was also ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders in 2015. She holds a BA in economics from Harvard University and a PhD from MIT.

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